Portable telephone systems and personal digital assistants (“PDA”) have gained widespread acceptance as an efficient means for voice and data communications. While early mobile units were large and complex, miniaturization has made possible hand-held units with full functional telephony capabilities allowing the user freedom to use a phone in a mobile environment or at a location remote from a hard wired connection to an existing telephone system. In addition, the cost of purchasing and using a portable phone has substantially declined and the quality and clarity of communication over a portable phone has increased causing increased and widespread demand for portable phones by the public. Such a demand has resulted in the competitive need for increased reliability in the portable phone and PDA.
Portable phones and PDA's typically include an electrical interface connector having both a power port and data port for charging and transferring data to the portable phone and PDA. Such an interface connector includes a dielectric elongate housing with electrically conductive terminals in each of the power port and data ports for electrically conducting and engaging with a power cable and data cable. The electrically conductive terminals are interconnected to circuitry in the portable phone and PDA.
The power cable and data cable are most often configured to engage with the interface connector and maintain such engagement with a latching system which holds the power cable and/or data cable in a mated condition. Such a latching system also is releasable to allow the power cable and/or data cable to be disengaged from the mated condition.
One of the problems with latching systems for the power cable and data cable described above is the potential of damage to the latches, themselves. In other words, too often the power cable and/or data cable is hastily positioned and latched in a misaligned fashion which causes strain and fatigue on the latches. The result may be inadvertent damage to the latches. Often the latches of the latching system are formed from a polymeric material that experiences torque and stresses, reducing the life span of the latches.
Another problem with such systems relates to the interface connector of the portable phone and PDA. Such an interface connector is a small, elongate and narrow structure which includes a housing molded of dielectric polymeric material or the like. When latching cavities are formed in the very narrow housing along with the cavities for the power port and data ports, open spaces are created which tend to allow the molded plastic housing of the interface connector to bow. The interface connector is designed for mounting on a printed circuit board, and even the slightest bowing of the housing prevents the connector from lying completely flat on the circuit board. Obviously, such bowing leads to misalignment of circuit connections with attendant circuit problems.
Another problem relating to obtaining and maintaining interconnection between the printed circuit board and the interface connector relates to co-planarity between the electrically conductive terminals formed in the housing of the interface connector. Conventionally, the housing is configured to receive the conductive terminals from the back side surface or the front side surface. However, inserting such conductive structures into the back or front of the housing has proved difficult to achieve substantial co-planarity between each of the conductive structures. Failure in achieving substantial planarity between the conductive structures reduces reliability in the interconnection between the conductive structures and conductive points on a printed circuit board for a PDA or portable phone.